Warren Hills Regional High School boys swimming team beats Somerville

The Warren Hills swim team had two surprises on the boys side in its 68-26 victory over Somerville on Wednesday.

"Our breaststroke today was a surprise, we took one, two in that," coach Fay Perticari said. "It was to the point that the officials didn't know who finished first because they were duking it out and finished so close."

Stephen O'Brien finished first in the 100 breaststroke with a time of 1:12.90, right behind him was teammate Liam Breslin in 1:12.93.

"We had some surprises with our 200 IM and having kept up with Nigel (Lane) from Somerville, who is a very good swimmer," Perticari said.

Somerville's Nigel Lane finished first (2:17.33). Then two Warren Hills swimmers finished behind him, Matt Mancuso and James Duffy. Macuso's time was 2:18.06 while Duffy swam a 2:21.20.

Senior captain Troy Balog finished third in the 100 backstroke with a time of 1:20.50 in his final in-conference meet at home.

"I am just proud to be apart of a team that is so talented," Balog said. "I joined the
swim team because it is so much fun and I am happy that we have been able to have
fun and win at the same time."

Another top swimmer for Warren Hills was Connor Iosue, who won the 200 freestyle with a time of 2:07.65 and also won the 100 butterfly in 1:05.33. Iosue was also the lead leg in the 400 freestyle relay that won (3:53.04).

The team has only three days of rest before it races again.

"I am not going to take it easy on them," Perticari said. "I am still going to work them hard tomorrow. It's a matter of if they can go in there mentally ready and just go for it, that's all they can do, just go all out."

Perticari went into this meet without knowing much about the Somerville team and had to plan accordingly with what little she knew.

"I went in with our best line-up and was able to make a couple of
changes to allow more swimmers to swim but I am going to have to do the
same thing again on Friday," Perticari said. "I am going to have to go in with our line-up and make adjustments
as needed."